THE
TARNISH DEEPENS ON THE WLLSON IMAGE
By John Walters a
London
The | recent - deflationary package ‘rushed through by the Wilson government plus the attempts at freezing wages has led to a further diminution of Harold Wilson's reputation, even in the eyes of his most fervent admirers.
Ivan Yates, writing in the Observer of August 14, headed his article "Disillusion in the ranks over Wilson." The reasons for this are tianifold. Late on the night of August 10 Wilson announced a ministerial. reshuffle, George Brown going to the Foreign Office, while former Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart took over Brown's previous job at the Department for Economic Affairs. Richard Crossman was moved from Housing to the Leadership of the House of Commons (an important post as he will ‘be in charge of the Parliamentary timetable), and there were some other changes in the Cabinet.
The net result however was that the Wilson team remains the: same; no one has been dropped, and no new ministers have been ~- oo appointed.. All this may seem to have been a game of political musi= cal chairs, but what it does do is to. let George Brown off the hook © as far as implementing the wage freeze. This is now left to Jim Callaghan at the Treasury, who is now the senior economics minister.
The récent panic measures taken to prop up the pound have the stamp of orthodox Treasury thinking, so that the press have seen both the measures and the ministerial changes as a victory of the Treasury and Callaghan. However for him personally, this may prove to be a hollow victory, since he must now carry the can for the new policies. As for-Michael Stewart he will have the: double odium of responsibility for the past, as far as Vietnam is concerned, and for the future, being one of those supporting the incomes and prices policy (i.e., wage freeze).
Life is certainly not going to be easy for the government in. the next few months. Nineteen trade unions have. submitted motions ..._ for this month's Trades Union. Congress opposing the government's ...legislation on wages. These unions represent over three million of... the eight million affiliated members. Furthermore, a number of unions are actively opposing the wage freeze. Clive Jenkins, general secretary of ASSET [Association of Supervisory Staffs Executives Technicians], has said, "This is a voluntary freeze. -- and we are simply not volunteering. " His union is threatening to take to court any employer who attempts to withhold pay awards that have been negotiated; they argue that this will be a breach of contract.
Should ‘they do this, it will put the government right on the spot since they. have included clauses in the recent Prices and . Incomes Act which allows them to make the freeze legally enforceable | should they think this necessary. Both Wilson: and Brown have made it
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clear that the government intend to take legal action if workers do not "volunteer." Ian Mikardo has characterised this Act as coming from the stable of Mussolini's Corporate State. Even M.P.'s who have never been considered to be left-wingers in any way have voiced harsh criticisms of the Act; and throughout the whole trade-union movement there is a spectrum running from vehement opposition to mutterings on the right wing. Should the government attempt to impose its wage freeze by legal means, it will be faced with monumental ‘problens.
Nor is it only on the trade-union front that the government faces trouble. A number of city councils up and down the country are going ahead with rent increases for council houses, this despite the appeals not to do so by the Housing minister. However, some of the selfsame councils are sticking to the wage freeze for their own — employees, so there will be trouble brewing all round on that front.
Looming ahead, of course, is the Trades Union Congress where, as I have indicated, the government's policies are in for a rough time. Beyond that, in October is the Labour party conference. ‘The resolutions for the conference were drafted before the present crisis, in fact most of them were sent in around the time of the honeymoon period of the general election. Therefore they do not completely reflect the state of party opinion at present. Now, with cuts in expenditure, new taxes, unemployment looming ahead in .the winter, this year's conference will be no victory parade for Wilson. The gilt is wearing off the Wilsonian image, and far from appearing as the all-conquering hero he will have to explain how this government of "go ahead planners" came to be thrown into such panic by the British and foreign bankers.
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